The Year of the Dog – and my Final Year in China!

Hello again! I’m back from my unplanned four-month-long break from blog writing, which happened to coincide with the transition into my third and final year in China (28th April marked the 2 year point). I’d love to say that my hiatus is the result of wonderfully exotic travels and cultural experiences – this is partly the case, as I’ve nipped to India, Thailand and UK in this time – but the real story is far less fun: work has been really, really busy. Rubbish excuse, I know.

The superstitious part of me (which I am not sure is real, though I shouldn’t tempt fate) also believes that I jinxed myself by writing a ‘January’ blog with the intention of following the same format each month – clearly a huge mistake! Anyway, “Three Years in Shanghai” suggests a commitment to charting three years in Shanghai, so this is me pulling my finger out and promising to do better hereon-in.

That said, here is a whirlwind recap of the last few months…

二月

FEBRUARY– Welcoming the Year of the Dog

In February the Chinese calendar transitioned from the Year of the Rooster to the Year of the Dog – the 11th animal of the Chinese Zodiac. Some key facts:

Birth years: 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018

Personality traits: The dog’s most powerful characteristic is it’s loyalty. They are also typically honest, good at helping others and offering advice, decisive, determined, playful and fair-minded.

Most compatible with: Rabbit, Tiger, Horse

And least compatible with: Dragons

If you’re really really into this, the Chinese New Year website has an insane amount of detail (career advice based on your zodiac, anyone?)

Part-way through the Chinese NY holiday Matt and I flew to Goa, India to join my beautiful friend’s Hindu wedding ceremony, but in the days preceding our flight we found that we had Shanghai almost to ourselves (see pics below). The French Concession in CNY is eerily quiet, as most foreigners take the national holiday to travel around Asia, and most Chinese travel back to their hometowns to see family. The upshot is that you always get a seat on the metro, but at the same time 90% of your favourite restaurants are shuttered (so if you’ve not been organised and done a food shop then you end up eating peanut-butter on toast… granted, there are worse fates).

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The handful of other people who chose to stay in Shanghai – and the flocks of inbound tourists – obviously chose to hang out at Yuyuan Garden, which was a veritable people-mountain-people-sea. Wire sculptures bound with brightly painted silk had been positioned throughout Yuyuan, telling the story of an ancient Chinese fairytale. Red lanterns strung overhead added welcome splashes of colour to an otherwise gloomy grey sky.

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三月

March – A few Milestones

Milestone #1: Miki – When I moved to Shanghai and joined my new team at work, there were two people who I bonded with straight away; they made me feel welcome, helped me to settle into Shanghai life (i.e., setting up TaoBao, OFO and DiDi – that’s all you need, right?!), and over the past couple of years they have always, always been there when I needed anything whether inside or outside of the office. Sadly (for me), bright young millenials based in Shanghai rarely stay with a company for long as there are so many amazing career opportunities to explore here; in line with this trend both my friends have moved on to new ventures in the last 12 months. I was really sad to see Miki leave as she always brightened up my day, but at the same time I’m confident she will be a great success.

Milestone #2: Matt: As happens every March, Matt got a year older and we celebrated with great food. This time at LAGO – the new restaurant by two-star Michelin chef Julian Serrano, at the Bellagio Shanghai. The striking tunnel entrance opened up into a glamourous art-deco style restaurant, fitted out in glass and marble and mirrors – the restaurant itself had been designed in the ‘boot’ shape of Italy, and our table looked out over the Huangpu river and Lujiazui.

The menu was Italian tapas designed to be shared – always a good strategy in China – and the food was top notch, especially the vitello tonnato (the veal was coated in charcoal made from bamboo and burned tomato skin, and the tuna which was whipped into an air-light mousse with capers and lemon: incredible). Interestingly the other standout dish was the pizza, which was infused with truffle paste and topped with shaved fresh truffles. Yum.

四月

April – Many Cocktails, and a Splash of Culture

Looking back, I appear to have spent most of April with some kind of alcoholic beverage in hand (Dry Jan feels like a lifetime away!). The photo where I’m holding a soft rabbit was taken in a speakeasy in South Shaanxi called Speak Low, accessed through a corridor hidden behind a vending machine in an otherwise unassuming cafe. The cocktails are similarly presented in a ‘things are not all as they seem’ manner – mine came in a hipflask zipped into the belly of aforementioned rabbit! Gimmicky, yes. Expensive, uhhuh. Worth it, absolutely!

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Christian Boltanski – Storage Method

On a sober day, I went to see ‘Storage Method’, a Christian Boltanski exhibition held at the Power Station of Art (PSA)- China’s first state-run contemporary art museum renovated from an old electric plant in the Huangpu District. The exhibition had been recommended to me by Miki, and it didn’t disappoint. The vast industrial space was the perfect backdrop for Boltanski’s expressionist conceptual pieces – mainly photographs, projections, assemblages and installations – which explore disappearance, existence, and the human condition.

The central theme is brought to life as soon as you walk through the front entrance, through a multisensory combination of Boltanski’s heartbeat reverberating through the soundsystem, and a mountain of discarded used clothing evoking the absence of those who have worn them (‘Personnes’, 2010). It continued throughout, for example in ‘The Last Second’ (2014) – a red-LED counter which gives an accurate record of the number of seconds Boltanski has been living since his birth – it will stop at the moment of his death.

I really loved this exhibition; I loved the dark eery close atmosphere in the cool concrete corridors of the PSA; I loved the way that the other visitors seemed to add to, rather than detract from the works, even when they stood in the way taking selfies (often a bugbear with art exhibitions in China); and I loved that some of the pieces made me feel uneasy in the pit of my stomach because they so powerfully probe the subject matter –

“What place does the individual have within the group? In what way are we unique and in what way do we depend on the social conditions imposed on us? Are not our efforts to survive after death in vain? What role do chance and destiny play in a life path?”

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五月

May – The Start of the Shanghai Summer

May saw a return trip to the UK, a consequence of which was that the month disappeared in the blink of an eye! It was lovely to see family and friends (the last time I was on home soil was June 2017 – 11 months earlier), and as always it was a bittersweet feeling to return to Shanghai.

And that brings us to June! I couldn’t resist posting the photos below – blue skies are so rare in this city and we’ve been so lucky to have some really nice days recently. I’m fully aware that this is the calm before the storm, and that soon the heavens will open with relentless torrents of rain, followed by soaring heat and almost unbearable humidity. Wish me luck!